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FANTAZIA 1991 And More
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57 posts in this topic

While digging through a box of old comic catalogs, I came across this mailing list from Sept. 1991. It's a little marked up from notes I made. For you old timers out there, you may remember this scandal. Reading over the list just blows you away for the amazing high grade examples advertised.

BUT, what was not made public was the extensive trimming, color touching and fake stamps to the inside splash page of most of the books. I keep two books I bought from them and one book was not messed with. My Sea Devils # 1 which slabbed out a 9.4. The other was heavily trimmed and at first appearance looked near perfect. Anyone else have a stories to tell or books to share about this scam back then?

 

FANTAZIA.thumb.jpg.82f4fc7df67f8e7b816f659005783872.jpg

 

 

1190162843_FANTAZIA2.thumb.jpg.c0cbbaf8ee892405632c40821d24c2a6.jpg

 

 

1943756759_FANTAZIA3.thumb.jpg.4907ac6349e844f4f88c392bc13dd4f1.jpg

 

 

 

Edited by RICK STARR
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Yeah I got Dupcaked ordering from Fantazia - unfortunately I think Danny D. is still active on Ebay

Here's one I still have.  I had it graded I knew it was trimmed but I still had it graded - Lou Fine Mystery Men, after all. 

I called him repeatedly trying to return and get a refund but never a call back.  I am pretty sure my order was from TBG ad and much earlier than 1991.

0902181906211.jpg

Edited by telerites
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It's amazing if you look back how many threads there are about the dirtbag.  He was robojo33 for along time and also comic-keys and who knows what other guises.  I think he set up on Amazon Marketplace.  

A classic thread here was when his ex-girlfriend posted.

 

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:cry:

1 hour ago, telerites said:

Yeah I got Dupcaked ordering from Fantazia - unfortunately I think Danny D. is still active on Ebay

Here's one I still have.  I had it graded I knew it was trimmed but I still had it graded - Lou Fine Mystery Men, after all. 

I called him repeatedly trying to return and get a refund but never a call back.  I am pretty sure my order was from TBG ad and much earlier than 1991.

0902181906211.jpg

Danny Duped Book :cry:

Edited by comicjack
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13 hours ago, RICK STARR said:

While digging through a box of old comic catalogs, I came across this mailing list from Sept. 1991. It's a little marked up from notes I made. For you old timers out there, you may remember this scandal. Reading over the list just blows you away for the amazing high grade examples advertised.

BUT, what was not made public was the extensive trimming, color touching and fake stamps to the inside splash page of most of the books. I keep two books I bought from them and one book was not messed with. My Sea Devils # 1 which slabbed out a 9.4. The other was heavily trimmed and at first appearance looked near perfect. Anyone else have a stories to tell or books to share about this scam back then?

 

FANTAZIA.thumb.jpg.82f4fc7df67f8e7b816f659005783872.jpg

 

 

1190162843_FANTAZIA2.thumb.jpg.c0cbbaf8ee892405632c40821d24c2a6.jpg

 

 

1943756759_FANTAZIA3.thumb.jpg.4907ac6349e844f4f88c392bc13dd4f1.jpg

 

 

 

I remember that ad for eastern copies in CBG. I was interested, glad I never went to purchase any copies. I remember talking to other collectors and dealers at shows about these uncirculated books. They all said they never heard of them.  I stayed away, thank goodness !

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4 hours ago, Robot Man said:

Luckily, I didn’t buy into his hype and stayed away from him. So glad I did now.

They offered me discounts on some of their other books, after I complained about the trimmed books I received. I returned the JLA 1 and did get a refund.

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11 minutes ago, RICK STARR said:

They offered me discounts on some of their other books, after I complained about the trimmed books I received. I returned the JLA 1 and did get a refund.

During those mail order days, this was really the worst I got burned.  The grades by Dupjerk were horrendous plus the undisclosed restoration.  Remember then we would mail in auction bids to Wooley's and Comic Heaven.  The only other time I remember getting hosed was by Sal Quartuccio on the Neal Adams Tarzan portfolios.  I paid for Set C (last one) and never got it.  I have bought a set.  Mail order had a certain charm but I wouldn't give up the internet and access to so many venues, being to connect with other collectors here, seeing pics of books prior to purchase, etc.

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5 hours ago, telerites said:

During those mail order days, this was really the worst I got burned.  The grades by Dupjerk were horrendous plus the undisclosed restoration.  Remember then we would mail in auction bids to Wooley's and Comic Heaven.  The only other time I remember getting hosed was by Sal Quartuccio on the Neal Adams Tarzan portfolios.  I paid for Set C (last one) and never got it.  I have bought a set.  Mail order had a certain charm but I wouldn't give up the internet and access to so many venues, being to connect with other collectors here, seeing pics of books prior to purchase, etc.

Back then, other than attending local or major comic conventions, you had Comics Buyers Guide which you could subscribe to for a weekly source of books. Continental Comics would have auctions via phone calls every few months. Some well known dealer mailing lists such as Ken Mitchell, Claude Held and Calvin Slobodian gave us a pretty good variety. Grading was always subjective, of course. I learned to make allowances from each source on how they graded. I loved Mr. Slobodian’s mailing lists. He would have deep runs, with multiple copies, of pre code horror/sci-fi books. But, his grading was atrocious. There was a lot of frustration ordering from mailing lists. Usually, 90% of everything you want is already sold or on hold. Some of us old timers wish for the old days. But, collecting and finding that grail book is easier today with many,many more sources and if you have the bucks and a little patience. 

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On 4/29/2019 at 3:25 PM, telerites said:

It's amazing if you look back how many threads there are about the dirtbag. 

 

5 hours ago, telerites said:

During those mail order days, this was really the worst I got burned.  The grades by Dupjerk were horrendous plus the undisclosed restoration. 

How is this possible at all?  ???

After all, isn't he the guy with those "beautiful" Eastern Color File Copies that used to always run those full-page ads in the weekly CBG and had all the consecutive years of CBG Customer Satisfaction Awards posted right there in his ads?  :screwy:  :censored:

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11 minutes ago, lou_fine said:

 

How is this possible at all?  ???

After all, isn't he the guy with those "beautiful" Eastern Color File Copies that used to always run those full-page ads in the weekly CBG and had all the consecutive years of CBG Customer Satisfaction Awards posted right there in his ads?  :screwy:  :censored:

I have very little knowledge of what transpired with Mr.Dupchek. The list I posted above, did he sell all those books? Those prices seem cheap today, but were top dollar back then. I cannot imagine all his books were altered?? Like I mentioned, one book of three (yikes) was not messed with.

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If he devoted as much time and energy to playing the game legit, he probably could have been one of the biggest, if not THE biggest, dealers in the hobby today (think Metro big)

He had extensive knowledge of what was hot in the market, paid handsomely and competitively for material and did get key books consistently, as evidenced by the CBG and Overstreet ads. He wasted so much on trying to trick the system. Didn't have to.

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9 hours ago, lou_fine said:

 

How is this possible at all?  ???

After all, isn't he the guy with those "beautiful" Eastern Color File Copies that used to always run those full-page ads in the weekly CBG and had all the consecutive years of CBG Customer Satisfaction Awards posted right there in his ads?  :screwy:  :censored:

He got a lot of votes from Wilhelm Uthe. 

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On 4/29/2019 at 3:10 PM, telerites said:

Yeah I got Dupcaked ordering from Fantazia - unfortunately I think Danny D. is still active on Ebay

Here's one I still have.  I had it graded I knew it was trimmed but I still had it graded - Lou Fine Mystery Men, after all. 

I called him repeatedly trying to return and get a refund but never a call back.  I am pretty sure my order was from TBG ad and much earlier than 1991.

 

On 4/30/2019 at 2:39 PM, telerites said:
On 4/30/2019 at 2:22 PM, RICK STARR said:

They offered me discounts on some of their other books, after I complained about the trimmed books I received. I returned the JLA 1 and did get a refund.

During those mail order days, this was really the worst I got burned.  The grades by Dupjerk were horrendous plus the undisclosed restoration. 

Yes, weren't those the crazy and fun days of the Wild Wild West when you would have to watch out for snakes like Danny Boy here.  :ph34r:

I clearly remembered ordering one of those supposedly untouched file copies from one of his ads in the old CBG days.  No problem getting a hold of him on the phone and actually didn't mind listening to some of his absolutely crazy stories to avoid giving you back your money.  Definitely played the old switcheroo game a few times which was nothing but more money for wasted postage.   :frustrated: :censored:

Of course, those were the pre-internet days which did leave him very vulnerable as his main source of income from comics at least was probably through his ads in the pages of CBG.  Once you exposed this weakness of his and he's no longer allowed to advertised there, you then get to find out what an absolute crybaby he really is.  It's simply amazing how fast you got all of your money back plus all of your postage and telephone expense after this.  Unfortunately, for some unexpected reasons here and there, it somehow took me months before I could get around to sending the book back to him.  Even after calling him every few weeks to assure him that the book was most definitely on its way back to him, but these weird and strange happenings would unexpectedly get in the way all the time.  lol

Did eventually ended up sending the book back to the crybaby about 6 or 8 months later, but I guess the letter of resolution I was supposed to have sent to CBG must have gotten lost in the mail.  Or is it still sitting there only half done on my old typewriter?  Poor Danny Boy, since I never ever did see him back in the pages of CBG after this.  :insane:  lol

Every time I think about Danny boy and those long drawn out conversations at the end, it now puts a big smile on my face.  :D

Edited by lou_fine
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he once bragged to me that mail order was a piece of cake.  That 9 out 10 buyers who were duped would just take it and never as for a refund. He only had to deal with the rest. I almost pulled the trigger on a Tec 27 in VG. It was the nicest of the 3 copies he had at the time. But I dodged a bullet. I figured that after my 10 time payments, Id get whatever copy he had lying around in stock, and that to would probably be restored too.  The local comics/baseball card store would tell me that he'd come in to buy beater cards, markers and razors... and show off his Babe Ruth signature and brag how'd the VGs he bought would be autographed NMs soon.  This worked like a charm until a customer he cheated turned out to be the DAs son!   oops.

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